


(Boy)friends

by blainedarling



Category: Glee
Genre: F/F, M/M, Multi
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2014-06-26
Updated: 2014-06-26
Packaged: 2018-02-06 07:45:20
Rating: Mature
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 11,866
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/1850047
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/blainedarling/pseuds/blainedarling
Summary: <blockquote class="userstuff">
              <p>Sebastian will go to any length to get what he wants. It’s Blaine that has a harder time with the line between the image and the truth.</p>
            </blockquote>





	(Boy)friends

**Author's Note:**

> This is inspired by the MTV show Faking It, although I’ve played around with their plot arc a fair bit for this. Big hugs to McCall for keeping me motivated and assuring me that it made sense.

Blaine was awoken by a thump. Several thumps, in fact, the repetitive noise cutting disturbingly into his sleep, and if he could have torn his eyes open he wouldn’t have been all that surprised to see the wall shaking slightly from the force of it. Unlike the first time this had occurred, he wasn’t particularly worried about the early morning banging, his soon-to-be step-sister taking some sort of sadistic thrill from lining up her exercise equipment with the adjoining wall of their bedrooms.

“The light is no good on the other side of the room in the mornings, Blaine,” she’d snapped when he’d politely asked if there was anywhere else she could put it. “I need to see myself in the best possible rays for my morning pep talk.”   
With any luck, Rachel would break the mirror with her thumping one of these days, convincing herself to move it while simultaneously showering her in seven years of bad luck. Blaine remained hopeful, at least.

The buzzing of his phone from where it was stuffed underneath his pillow, however - that he couldn’t so well ignore. He dragged an eye open, enough to see  _Sebastian_  flashed up on the screen before he swiped his thumb across to answer the call.

“’llo,” he mumbled, pressing it to the ear that was not currently smushed into the pillow.  
“Did I wake you?”  
Blaine made a noise of assent.  
“Well, good! You should have been up fifteen minutes ago, I need you to drive me to school, remember?” Sebastian was doing his snappy, impatient tone, the one usually reserved for inept Starbucks baristas or his parents. Blaine could practically see him clicking his wrist in frustration, as he was prone to doing. It drove Blaine crazy, every little crack making him flinch.

“Drive yourself, I have to deal with Medusa.”  
As if on cue, there came an especially loud thump from the adjoining room; Blaine hissed at the wall in response.   
Sebastian huffed on the other end of the line. “I can’t drive myself, I have a  _broken leg_.”   
“No, you don’t, you-” Blaine cut himself off, gritting his teeth together. “Right. You have a broken leg. Of course,” he muttered flatly.  
“See you in twenty!” Sebastian chirped, before hanging up.

Blaine had witnessed Sebastian do some particularly dumb things in the seventeen years the pair had been friends, always with the one same goal - to get what he wanted. He’d seen him, aged eight, draw on his skin in red pen, to try and emulate some disease or another that would allow to skip school so he wouldn’t miss the all-day  _Scooby Doo_  marathon on Nickelodeon. He’d seen him try and do the same to Blaine, so the opportunity could be shared. Blaine had seen him, aged fifteen, flirting with their middle aged Chemistry teacher, to try and boost his modest C to a more respectable B. And succeed. 

But this? This was a new level of incredulous, even for Sebastian Smythe. Because Blaine’s best friend had decided that the sure-fire way to get the resisting foreign exchange student from London to sleep with him, was by pretending to have a broken leg.

“Adam’s too nice of a guy not to go for the sympathy fuck,” Sebastian said, not for the first time, once he’d swung himself, with two functioning legs, into the passenger seat of Blaine’s car.   
“Sympathy cup of tea, maybe,” Blaine quipped under his breath, but Sebastian was too busy examining his crutches to pay any attention to him. He didn’t even want to know where he’d lifted those from.

Blaine would really have rather that Sebastian didn’t involve him in his twisted schemes, in any capacity. When Adam had first arrived to McKinley at the start of the semester, Sebastian had decided to make it his mission to get him into his bed. Blaine had never seen Sebastian interested in a guy before, not beyond making obscene groaning noises whenever they watched  _Magic Mike_  or his open discussions as to why gay porn was hotter than the alternatives.

But Sebastian was disinterested in the implications of it all, and Blaine supposed that that, at least, was fair enough. Sebastian liked to get what he wanted and Blaine liked to take little to no interest in who his best friend was sleeping with. As long as he didn’t have to deal with any more Lisa Draper type situations.

Lisa Draper had been a bashful senior when they’d been in sophomore year, with pretty dark hair and quote-unquote legs that fantasies were built on (Sebastian’s words, not his). Sebastian made out with her at a party he wasn’t invited to and the next day at school, she was walking the corridors asking if anyone knew where her boyfriend was. Sebastian had promptly hidden himself in the top floor Biology, fluttering eyelashes begging Blaine to set the record straight on his behalf. And he hadn’t even been at that party.

Lisa Draper followed Blaine around like a lost puppy for a solid week, until she finally accepted that no, Sebastian was not and never would be her boyfriend and that, no, Blaine wouldn’t be either.

“You still owe me for Lisa Draper,” Blaine mumbled as he swung the car into the parking lot of McKinley High, but Sebastian still wasn’t listening. No doubt because he’d seen what Blaine, too, noticed as he pulled into a parking space and killed the engine. 

Kurt Hummel, leaning against the back of a rotting bench, tapping his fingers over the opposite arm as he watched them get out of the car. Kurt Hummel, who singlehandedly gave gays at McKinley a bad name. Kurt Hummel, best friends with Blaine’s unwanted housemate, Rachel Berry. Go figure. 

Kurt and Sebastian tended to butt heads quite drastically, whether due to their shared stubborn nature or just an inherent dislike of the other. Regardless, Kurt had been the one who had really pushed the Adam boat out into Lake Insanity, having overheard (read: eavesdropped) on one of Blaine and Sebastian’s conversations and stated quite frankly that no gay guy in their right minds would want to have anything to do with Sebastian, much less his dick.

McKinley High was not in any sense a typical Midwestern high school. Whether it was down to the incredibly liberal staff members or a fiercely opinionated student body who had not one, but three, protesting unions for everything from the quality of lunch meats in the cafeteria to the colour of the walls in the corridors, but the school had become a haven of equality and acceptance. 

It was like a juxtaposition in the middle of Lima: within those walls, everyone could be exactly who they wanted to be. Step outside, and the real world with its very real prejudices continued in force. 

Blaine had made a point of disliking the protesting unions since he’d started there. He had nothing against the school’s acceptance stance and he’d seen how much good it could do, but he counted that among one of the combined unions’ few victories. The more they protested, the more ridiculous it would get, and while Sebastian often got involved for the sake of the girls in tight t-shirts with slogans scrawled on them in bright red pen, Blaine did not. 

A fortnight ago, the unions along with the bulk of the student body, had gone on hunger strike in protest of them introducing red cabbage into the salad bar. Blaine had sat himself down in the middle of the quad with a burger and a double portion of fries and had put on a little the show. 

Sebastian had eventually come to join him when he started moaning around a particularly crispy fry, warning him with a smirk that if he didn’t stop, he might be the cause of several fainting fits inside. Blaine had simply sucked the salt off his fingers in defiance and in response Sebastian had sat down beside him and stolen the rest of his burger. 

The cafeteria did great business in burgers that day and continued to put red cabbage into the salad bar.

Blaine quickly latched an arm around Sebastian’s elbow as he wobbled his way up onto the grass, struggling with the crutches he didn’t even need to be using.   
“Are you serious right now?” Kurt sneered, slipping his sunglasses down his nose to asses the stumbling Sebastian. “You’ve resorted to fake injuries  _already?_  This is pathetic.”

Sebastian grunted, setting off determinedly away from Kurt, but not before flipping him off - just about managing not to offset his balance in the process.   
“You are as much to blame for this,” Blaine huffed, poking a finger at Kurt’s chest before stomping off after his friend.  
“Oh, I know!” Kurt called after him brightly. “I’m just doing my duty as a student of this wonderful school by providing us all with entertainment for weeks!”

“He’s an asshole,” Sebastian announced as he sank down onto a bench underneath the overhanging oak tree, only a few feet from the school’s main entrance. He shook his hands out slowly, having been bearing the brunt of his entire weight given the crutches.   
“He is,” Blaine agreed, sitting down beside him and tucking his satchel into his side. “But he does have a point. This could blow up in your face pretty badly.”

Blaine cocked his head, considering his friend for a moment. It was quite unlike Sebastian, in a way. To reduce to such frankly desperate measures for the sake of a lay. He could walk through the corridors of McKinley and within three steps have at least half a dozen girls willing to pet his ego, among other things, for an evening. 

“What is it about Adam?” Blaine wondered out loud, drumming his fingertips off the back of the bench.   
Sebastian just shrugged, tipping his head over his shoulder and scanning the sea of students milling around in the run-up to the homeroom bell. “Just let me see this through, B.”

Blaine held up his hands in surrender. It wasn’t worth the argument, especially not when Blaine could feel the beginnings of a headache pulsing behind his eyelids thanks to his rude awakening that morning. He just hoped that Sebastian knew what he was doing because even if he wouldn’t admit it, Blaine knew better than anyone that his friend wasn’t made of stone, no matter what he said. 

Sebastian jerked suddenly at his side, waving at someone across the quad. Blaine didn’t need to look over to know it would be Adam himself and apparently Sebastian’s excitement got the better of him, as he jumped to his feet calling out the other boy’s name. 

“Hey, Sebastian!”   
Blaine didn’t really have many feelings one way or another about Adam, although he didn’t give in to the general opinion that he was McKinley’s very own Hugh Grant. And the accent was just irritating. 

Adam jogged the last few steps towards them, oblivious to where Sebastian had noticed his mistake and was cursing under his breath, giving the crutches a kick to try and obscure them under the bench. 

“Adam, hey,” Sebastian purred, leaning over the bench with an easy grin.   
Only Blaine would notice the pinch of colour at the back of his neck.   
“Sebastian, Blaine.” Adam frowned as he noted the foot of one of the crutches poking out from under the bench, tilting his head to get a better look. “What’s with the crutches?”

Sebastian faltered for a moment, his tongue seeming to stick in his mouth.  
“They’re mine,” Blaine offered up quickly, when he saw that his friend wasn’t going to be doing much better any time soon. “Just a sprain. But my mom likes to be cautious.” He rolled his eyes as if to emphasise the point. 

“I’m sorry to hear that,” Adam replied genuinely, bending down gallantly to retrieve the crutches and prop them up beside the bench. “There you go.”   
Blaine smiled stiffly, patting the crutches. “Thanks so much,” he said flatly, his hand tightening around the handle of one as Sebastian moved around to join Adam, murmuring something about walking him to class. 

It shouldn’t have irked Blaine as much as it did, seeing Sebastian just walk off with Adam without so much as a backwards glance. He could feel it crawling up under his skin, eating at him for reasons he couldn’t explain. 

Blaine started as Brittany dropped into Sebastian’s recently vacated spot on the bench, flipping her red Cheerios skirt into place over her lap.   
“Where’d Sebastian go?” she asked with a smile, as though it were a completely normal occurrence for her to sit down to speak to Blaine, of all people.

He blinked a few times, before scratching the back of his neck. “With Adam,” he replied with a half shrug. He watched as the other girl nodded, kicking her feet over the ground aimlessly. “Are you okay, Brittany?”

Brittany laughed, nodding as she folded her restless legs up underneath herself. “Yeah, I’m just waiting for Santana. We always go to class together. Just like you and Sebastian. Or like you usually do, anyway.”

“Right,” Blaine murmured, hitching his bag up over his shoulder as he stood up. “I should go.” He stood up and headed towards the building, just in time for the first bell to ring, not dwelling on the fact that Brittany was right. He hadn’t walked to class alone in years.

*

Blaine ate lunch alone, too. Left school alone, no sign of Sebastian in the parking lot and by then he was too irritated to start looking for him. He’d probably gotten a ride home with Adam. And if he hadn’t? He could take the bus, and Blaine couldn’t help but feel a little bit satisfied about just how much Sebastian would hate that possibility.

In fact, he didn’t hear a thing from his friend until he burst into his bedroom that evening, just as Blaine was sitting down with every intention of binge watching  _The West Wing_  until he passed out. 

“Get dressed,” Sebastian snapped, rushing towards his wardrobe and rummaging through the drawers, throwing things haphazardly in Blaine’s sweatpants-clad direction.  
Blaine whined, lifting his head from the stack of pillows he had propped up in front of the laptop screen, scrunching up his nose as a pair of boxers hit him on the nose. “Why? No. I’m not getting dressed. And stop messing up my wardrobe.”

Sebastian huffed, ignoring his protests and continuing to completely dismantle Blaine’s careful colour-coordinated system of drawers and hangers. He made a noise of triumph, tugging out a pair of purple chinos and a pale blue button up, holding them up in front of Blaine. “These will do. Move it.”

Blaine was reluctant in his movements as he got up to take the clothes from Sebastian, heading into the ensuite bathroom, letting his feet drag over the carpeted floor accompanied with a petulant scowl in his friend’s direction. He left the door ajar as he got dressed, allowing Sebastian to launch into a soliloquy about why going to this party was crucial in how things were progressing with Adam, not to mention that he needed Blaine there as much as it would be good for him to get out of the house, to meet some other people. 

“Why would I need that?” Blaine asked flatly, doing up the last buttons on his shirt and tucking it into his pants as he walked out of the bathroom. It was the kind of comfortable that you could only be around a person you’d known so well for so long - and, regardless, Sebastian was paying little attention to what Blaine was doing as he slicked his hair back in the mirror with a little of Blaine’s gel.   
“It’d be good for you,” Sebastian replied simply, turning around and giving Blaine a once over before he nodded in approval. “Come on.”

Blaine frowned as he scooped up his keys and phone and followed Sebastian from the room.  _It’d be good for you._  What did that even mean? He had Sebastian, he’d always had Sebastian. And with that, he didn’t need anyone else. He had no interest in the pretentious protestors, much less those on the other side of that coin, who were akin to Rachel. Was he to expect that Sebastian would now be spending all of his time with Adam, that the events of that day were just the start of this ridiculous parallel universe where he ate lunch alone?

Well, if that was what Sebastian wanted, then Blaine would far rather eat his lunch alone than spend his precious nights at parties with people who had as little interest in him as he did in them.

The party was already spilling out into the garden of Holly’s house when the two of them arrived, in an unusual state of silence. Sebastian’s monologuing had run dry and Blaine merely kept quiet, his eyes fixed on the road, too worried of what might snap out of him if he did open his mouth.

Sebastian didn’t offer up anything else, either, when he got out of the car, disappearing into the heat of the party.  
“Wasn’t aware I was your cab driver now,” Blaine muttered bitterly as he lost sight of Sebastian in the crowds, sighing as he looked around.

Holly and her friends had clearly been cracking open the liquor since mid-afternoon, two of the girls crowding around a third who was weeping openly about someone called Jason who  _such_  an asshole. Nearby, another group of girls swayed on their toes, watching Holly’s group with a kind of admiration and wistfulness in their eyes. It was all so predictable, so generic, it made Blaine’s stomach churn.

He had no interest in drinking that night, even if he hadn’t been driving, so he made for swiping a soda as he passed through the kitchen. He’d been to Holly’s at least once before, the plus one to Sebastian as he darted around, always with quick wit on his tongue and a twinkle in his eye. He knew there was a couch at the back of the living room that usually remained empty, as it sat right in the way of a draft from the open back door. 

Blaine found his couch, a soda in one hand, but this time it wasn’t empty. Brittany sat there alone, swirling the contents of a red cup in front of her, a small frown across her delicate features. He approached her carefully, sitting down at the other side, balancing his soda can in one hand. She looked up as he sat down, giving him a half smile.

“I really hate beer,” she said, pointing to the cup before going back to her swirling. It seemed as though she hadn’t drunk much, if any, of it, the sloshing foam the closest she was going to get to doing so.  
Blaine smiled a little, relaxing into the couch. “Me too,” he admitted, gesturing to his soda can. “Do you want one?”

She laughed, a soft sound, before setting down her cup and shaking her head. “No, thanks, Blaine. Santana will get me one when she arrives.”  
Blaine frowned. “She’s not here?” He’d always seen the relationship between the two girls to be similar in many ways to that of him and Sebastian.   
“She’s on her way. She said she had to go see Quinn about something first.”

Blaine bit his lip, simply nodding in reply. He knew all about Quinn’s after school study sessions - Sebastian had been privy to more than a few - but it wasn’t his place to say anything. He barely knew Brittany, more than that they’d shared a few classes since freshman year. 

His eyes travelled over the busy room, his hand unconsciously tightening around the soda can as he spotted Sebastian. He was talking to some girl from their Chemistry class, but his eyes kept darting away, as if he were looking for someone. Adam, or Blaine?

“Oh my god,” Brittany whispered beside him, making his head snap around.  
“What?” he asked in confusion, clearing his throat and tearing his gaze away from Sebastian to look at her.  
“I never realized! How didn’t I  _realize?”_  she squeaked, clapping her hands together, practically bouncing in her seat. “I always knew you and Sebastian were special like me and Santana!”

Blaine blinked at her slowly, one eyebrow quirking upwards. He didn’t know Brittany all that well, but maybe this was just how she was. Maybe she just worked boundless enthusiasm into everything, no matter what the cause of it was.

“I really should have seen it,” Brittany laughed, shaking her head a little. “The way you two look at each other. How jealous you were earlier about Adam.”  
Blaine’s tongue went dry, about to protest that he had  _not_  been jealous, for a start, his own realization starting to kick in about what Brittany might claim to suddenly have noticed. 

But he didn’t have a chance, the blonde girl leaping up from the couch, pushing past various people, yelling out over the crowd as she scrambled onto a chair. At first, Blaine wondered if it had something to do with Santana, who must have just come in as she now approached Brittany’s side, murmuring something up to her, probably about being careful up there. Quinn lingered behind her, her eyes settling over the crowd with a kind of glazed disinterest. 

“Everyone, something magical has been blossoming among us and I am so proud and honored to be the one to tell you all about it!” Brittany began, those who hadn’t previously noticed her turning, too. Brittany may not have been all that bright, but she was popular. And popularity tended to gain more listeners than intellect. 

Blaine stayed unmoving on the end of the couch, even through the crowds still able to see what he needed to. Brittany up on the chair. Sebastian at one side of her, frozen in where he had been about to step towards Adam, at the other. 

The room fell silent.

“Our very own Sebastian and Blaine,” she gushed, giggling as she looked between the two of them, all eyes following that path, too. “Guys!” she yelled, when no one reacted more than curious glances. “They’re  _boyfriends!”_

“Oh, no,” Blaine whispered, the unopened soda can falling with a thump from his hand to the floor. He looked over at Sebastian, expecting confusion, surprise, maybe even anger.   
But Sebastian was smiling his little cat-like smirk, the corners of his eyes crinkling up. Blaine knew that expression.

Blaine groaned under his breath, repeating: “Oh,  _no.”_

*

Blaine was six years old when his parents announced that they were getting a divorce. Six and a half when his father finally packed up his bags to leave for good, and Cooper made the decision to move with him to New York.

He could remember standing on the bottom step of the staircase, his hands gripped tightly around the bannister, fat tears drooping down his cheeks as he snuffled. He remembered watching his father shake his mother’s hand, as if it were the ending to some business transaction. Not a marriage, not a family.

And then Cooper had walked over to him, knelt down by his feet and wiped the tears from his cheeks. “You gotta be a big boy now, Blainers,” he’d whispered, kissing his forehead fiercely. There was regret in his eyes, but not enough to make him want to stay. 

Cooper had been Blaine’s first line of defense at school. The bigger kids, and those in his grade too, didn’t like him much. They would tug at his suspenders and throw dirt into his curls and tell him that only babies didn’t wear socks with their shoes. 

With Cooper gone, the playground had become Blaine’s worst nightmare. The shrieks and battle cries of his classmates echoing across the concrete, children laughing and playing. Blaine would sit, by himself, tucked underneath the jungle gym and hoping that no one would notice him there if he was quiet. 

That was where Sebastian had found him. He’d been trying to climb up to the top one day and went spiraling down, landing head first into Blaine’s small den where he was sitting eating his no-crusts lunch his mom had packed for him. 

“You’re Blaine, aren’t you?” Sebastian had asked. Blaine generously shared one of his sandwiches with Sebastian, who explained that he had exerted himself on the monkey bars somewhere above and could do with a little addition to his own lunch that he’d already had. 

From that day on, Sebastian became Blaine’s protector, a firm choice given that he was a little bit taller than almost all of the other children in their class. Sebastian would have done anything to protect Blaine, who always shared his lunches and who knew the best scary stories (learned from Cooper) for when they had sleepovers. And in turn, Blaine would always help Sebastian, whether it was with his Math homework, or with the treehouse he constructed in his back yard, or just in bringing him candy when he knew he was upset about losing his soccer match at school.

For the first time, Blaine wasn’t sure he could help, wasn’t sure that he was comfortable doing what his best friend was asking of him. For Sebastian had no intentions of setting the record straight on the nature of their relationship, instead he had all but pioneered Brittany’s suggestion that they should run for Homecoming Kings, supported by the wealth of the party’s population.

“Adam’s  _finally_  starting to take me seriously about this whole thing now,” Sebastian insisted. “I think he’s finally starting to see that I’m not just messing around.”  
Blaine raised an eyebrow, going back to stacking his books into his satchel. “What about the minor detail that you are supposedly in a committed relationship? With me?”

Sebastian batted a hand in front of him with an air of nonchalance. “Two weeks. We give it two weeks at most and then we have an amicable but probably very public break up. It’s a win-win.”

Blaine bit back a comment about how he was pretty sure Sebastian was the only one winning anything in this scenario, setting his bag down by the door before leaning against it, folding his arms across his chest. He eyed Sebastian carefully, the eager hopefulness in his eyes, the way his fingers were twitching across his thigh.

“You actually…like him, don’t you?” Blaine asked quietly. “Adam.” The name seemed to plummet into his gut, twisting up there like a knife. “This is more than just winning some bet or proving a point.”  
Sebastian paused before giving a small shrug. “Maybe. I don’t really know, B. I can’t explain it.” He smiled, and there was something giddy in it that only served to make the pain in Blaine’s stomach worsen.

“I’d never even considered the thought of being with a guy before this. I don’t think I really care, you know? And he’s funny and hot and he challenges me. I think that’s what I really like. That he challenges me. Like you do!”

_Please don’t compare me to him_ , Blaine thought to himself as he bent down to pick up the satchel. “Okay,” he murmured in defeat, slipping his hands into his pockets. “Two weeks. But can we skip the dumb Homecoming Kings thing? Please?”  
Sebastian chuckled, hopping up from the bed and swinging an arm around Blaine’s shoulders as they walked out of the room together. “Aw, come on. It’s cute,” he persisted.

They started as they came into contact with Rachel, hovering suspiciously close to Blaine’s bedroom door. She cleared her throat and tucked a strand of hair behind her ear, before shooting them a glare and stomping off into her own room, the door slamming shut behind them. 

“I’m so glad she’s not your blood relation,” Sebastian commented, before they headed towards the stairs.

*

The rally for Homecoming was being held in the gym that afternoon. Sebastian had assured Blaine that he wouldn’t need to say anything, that he would do the talking - and besides, the school body seemed to be largely in favor of them as nominees, anyway.

The main opposition being Rachel, who was halfway through a speech about school spirit and motivation that seemed to be sending most of the audience to sleep when Blaine and Sebastian slipped into the gym a little late. The sight of them made her falter for a moment, before she flipped her head back around to face her audience, a wide grin plastered on her face. 

Blaine had no idea what Sebastian had really planned to say, maybe something about what a wonderfully accepting community McKinley High was, or how they were proud to stand for something so important. But he didn’t get the chance to say anything, as the moment he opened his mouth, Rachel grabbed the microphone back, stabbing her pointer finger violently in their direction.

“You might  _think_  you want these two as your Homecoming Kings, but McKinley High, I ask you this: do you really  _know_  who Blaine and Sebastian are?” She looked upon the audience with an enraged expression, before continuing. “Liars! That’s all they are! They’re not a couple, they’re probably not even gay!”

Blaine nibbled on his lower lip nervously as Rachel continued, glancing between Sebastian and the crowd. It was hard to gauge their reaction to her statements, but he could read Sebastian’s like an open book. He was nervous, his eyes desperately seeking Adam out in the benches. 

He sighed under his breath, knowing there was only one way to really make sure they had the vote that Sebastian was so keen to get. And if Sebastian hadn’t figured it out yet, then it seemed it would fall to him.

He made a grab for the microphone, startling both Sebastian and Rachel in the process. “If we weren’t a couple, would I do this?” he declared loudly, before dumping the microphone into Rachel’s astounded hands and grabbing Sebastian firmly by the back of his neck. 

The roar went up from their peers the moment their lips touched, but Blaine wasn’t even sure he heard it. All he could hear was the surprised gasp of his best friend as he pressed his lips to Sebastian’s, his eyes closing, spare hand coming up to rub his shoulder gently. 

_Relax, Bastian._

Blaine felt an arm wind tightly around his waist, Sebastian drawing him closer as he tilted his head into it, their lips moving in a gentle give and take. He was aware that his heart rate had sped up considerably, thudding against his ribcage.

They broke apart a second or two later, Sebastian retrieving the microphone to give a few closing words. Blaine rocked back down onto his heels, out of breath, cheeks no doubt flushed as he looked over at Sebastian. His lips had been so soft, warm, the perfect pressure against his own. 

“You’re a genius,” Sebastian whispered to him as the rally came to an end, squeezing his forearm once, before he moved off to where Adam was approaching him.  
Blaine licked his lips and nodded once, wrapping his arms around his middle.

*

Blaine woke up to a pair of emerald green eyes fixed on him. His gaze trickled down over Sebastian’s features, the curve of his nose, the defined shape of his cheekbones, the smirk on his lips. 

“Good morning,” Sebastian murmured, grinning as he swung a leg over Blaine’s body, effectively straddling him. His hands tangled up into Blaine’s, pushing them up over his head firmly. His lips were on Blaine’s within seconds, nipping and sucking at the flesh, in between little whimpers of his name. 

He felt Sebastian’s knee slip between his legs, pushing up against where he was already, for whatever reason, half hard.   
“Bastian,” he groaned softly, his hands scratching over Sebastian’s back, dipping down to grab hold of his hips. “God, don’t stop doing tha-”

Blaine’s eyes shot open as he felt a cool blast of air enter the room, accompanied by a slam. His skin felt hot and clammy, the sheets sticking to him, and his cock was throbbing painfully in his boxer briefs. 

“A _hem_ ,” Rachel said from the doorway, tapping her fingers impatiently off the wooden frame. “Your mom said to tell you there’s waffles.” She observed Blaine for a moment, her eyes narrowing, before leaving, the door smacking shut behind her again.

Blaine let his head flop back against the pillow with a sigh, his foggy mind slowly processing the dream that he had been so rudely awoken from. He tugged at the blankets a little, hissing as they rubbed over his crotch, before burying his face in the pillow and letting out a strangled scream. 

_It was just some chemical, hormonal reaction to that kiss_ , Blaine told himself firmly as he dragged himself out of bed and into a cold shower before he would face his mother and the extended soon-to-be family for breakfast.  _It’s totally normal and it doesn’t mean anything._

Rachel’s suspicious gaze hadn’t lessened by the time he made it downstairs, to a tut from his mother about time-keeping and how he needed to stop sleeping in so late on school mornings. Rachel’s father was hidden behind his morning newspaper, as was typical, a mug of coffee in front of him on the table. 

Blaine poured a large mug for himself from the pot before sitting down, grimacing at the stack of waffles on his plate. “I’m not really hungry,” he murmured, pushing it away and cradling the mug, instead.

His mother frowned but didn’t comment, while Rachel simply continued to stare at him.   
“Isn’t there something you want to share, Blaine? With your mother?” she asked sweetly, nibbling at the end of a strawberry from her plate. 

Blaine’s curled his hands tighter around the mug, before shaking his head stiffly. He knew full well what Rachel was referring to, but he had no intentions of baring anything to his mom regarding Sebastian. Let her continue to think of him just as her son’s best friend, and soon the whole thing would be over anyway.

Unless Blaine really did have feelings for him, or for  _boys_ , in general. He looked over at his mom slowly, her prim cut skirt and cashmere sweater, pearls in her ears. The Republican banners in the windows, kept up all year around no matter whether it was voting season or not.

No. He would not be telling his mother a thing.

*

Blaine almost expected to walk into school that morning and for it to be as though none of the past couple of days had even happened. For people to continue on their usual paths of overlooking him, for Sebastian to greet him with the usual arm swung over his shoulder, for life to proceed as normal.

It was not to be so. Sebastian was waiting for him when he got out of the car, ducking down to press a chaste kiss to his cheek before taking his hand. Blaine shivered a little, pushing the memory of dream-Sebastian’s hands on his skin to the back of his mind. The entire parking lot stared, meanwhile, beaming as though they were watching their favourite reality show couple. 

“Aw, come on, Smythe, doesn’t he deserve a real kiss?” Kurt taunted from the sidelines. He was one of the few who clearly were not buying into this campus romance.   
Sebastian flipped him his middle finger, but pulled Blaine a little closer into his side as they made their way towards the front quad. 

They sat down under the shade of an old oak tree, the branches casting shadows against the grass. Blaine shifted uncomfortably - he could still feel the eyes on them, even if Sebastian didn’t seem as bothered by it. 

“So, you know how my mom is friends with Lara Brooke’s mom?”  
Blaine hummed in acknowledgement as he dug out his sunglasses and slipped them over his eyes, before turning to look at Sebastian with a questioning head tilt.   
“Lara Brooke told her mom. About the Homecoming thing? About Holly’s party.”

Sebastian gestured vaguely, as if implying that he didn’t need to say the rest, and Blaine felt his stomach lurch up into his throat.  
“Your parents know. That we’re— dating.”  
Sebastian nodded, before laying a hand firmly on his arm. “But I told them not to talk about it with your mom, no matter what. I  _told_  them. They know what she can be like.”

Blaine nodded gratefully, giving Sebastian’s hand a small squeeze. He licked his lips, turning a question over in his mind before finally giving in and asking: “What did they say?”   
Sebastian chuckled, tipping his head back and closing his eyes, the rays hitting his face. “They were ecstatic, actually. Said they couldn’t think of a more perfect pair, or a more perfect boy for me to be with.” Sebastian’s tone dripped with obvious amusement, as if the possibility of the two of them actually being a couple were laughable. 

The shorter boy swallowed, letting out a flat laugh.   
“I figure, if they like me dating you, then they’ll like Adam. If I end up dating him. Which I might not, anyway.”  
Somehow, Sebastian’s offhandedness didn’t settle Blaine’s distaste at being, once again, compared to Adam. Because the more Sebastian described Adam as Blaine 2.0, the more it seemed like he didn’t really need mark one any longer. 

“So, tonight? I’ll pick you up?”  
Blaine shook his head a little, moving to stand up. “Don’t worry about it. I’ll just meet you at the dance.”  
Sebastian shrugged, laying back against the grass with his hands behind his head. “Suit yourself.” He opened one eye, grinning at him. “Get it? You’ll be wearing a  _suit.”  
_ Blaine groaned, rolling his eyes and aiming a gentle kick at his foot. “Abysmal, Bastian.”

*

In truth, Blaine had never been to a school dance before, even though he’d always wanted to. Sebastian would usually tag along as a favor to whichever girl had their claws into him that particular week and had always encouraged Blaine to come along, too. But he hadn’t much felt like hovering at the side of the gym, clutching a plastic cup of sugary punch and aimlessly scuffing his toes into the floor in a vague resemblance of dancing.

It was everything he’d hoped it would be, down to the streamers and twinkling fairy lights, and Johnny from the senior class slipping something from a silver hip flask into the punch bowl. He let his eyes wander over the interior of the gym as he walked in, hands brushing over the odd decoration as he went.

There was no sign of Sebastian yet, but there seemed to be no shortage of people who wanted to say hello to him, to squeeze his arm, to tell him how handsome he looked. Brittany was one of the first, skittering over to him in a peach coloured dress with so many layers that it bounced when she moved. Santana stayed close to her side, a devil in red with the lips to match.

Santana said nothing to him, merely watched him as he spoke to Brittany about Homecoming and whether or not the gym would have looked better with blue fairy lights instead of white. She did, however, give his bow tie a playful tug after Brittany had given him a hug and he considered that an improvement on where she’d used to blow spitballs at him in middle school.

He turned from Brittany, clearing his throat and gazing out over the couples dancing. His feet shuffled awkwardly on the floor, not quite dancing, just moving about. It wasn’t that he was a bad dancer, he just preferred to do it in a setting where everyone wouldn’t see when he inevitably tripped up on his own feet at least once.

“Your highness.”  
Blaine whipped around in time to catch Sebastian’s mock bow, a smirk playing on his lips.   
“Come on,” he murmured, offering out his arm. “They need us up on stage for the crowning.”

There was one factor Blaine hadn’t reckoned on in the whole Homecoming thing. One thing that he’d completely managed to overlook, precisely because he’d never once attended one of these dances. 

“And to present the crowns, we have the head of our Parents and Teachers Association-”  
Sebastian’s voice ghosted over his ear. “B, isn’t that…?”  
“Maya Anderson!”

Blaine’s stock smile froze on his face as he watched his mother walk onto the stage, her spindly heels clacking on the cheap stage that had been set up. She gave a quick wave, made some awful joke about her own Homecoming and then stepped back to let the head of the dance committee announce the winners.

“Blaine, honey,” she hissed out of the corner of her mouth. “You never told me you were nominated! I’m so proud of you.” She paused. “Loosen your bow tie a bit you look like you’re in pain.”  
He rolled his eyes, huffing under his breath and fixing his eyes on what Stacie was saying, rather.

“McKinley High, your 2014 Homecoming King - or should I say  _Kings_ , Blaine Anderson and Sebastian Smythe!”  
A holler went up from the crowd, Blaine and Sebastian being ushered forward. Blaine caught the confused expression on his mother’s face as she placed the crown on his head and moved over to do the same to Sebastian with the tiara.

“Hey, B,” Sebastian grinned, cocking his head. “What do you think? Personally I think I could rock the diamanté trend.”  
Blaine knew he was just trying to cheer him up, to make him smile, but it wasn’t working. Not this time. He blindly let Sebastian tug him out onto the dance floor, his hand holding him up securely at his back. 

“I’m sorry,” Sebastian whispered, their proximity enough to ensure that he could speak in a low tone that no one else would hear. “I’m so sorry, you know I wouldn’t mean for-”  
Blaine cut him off with a gentle shush, running a hand over his spine. “Don’t,” he murmured. “Don’t apologize. It won’t change anything, anyway.”

He caught sight of his mom out of the corner of his eye, watching the two of them dance with bewilderment still caught in her features. Sebastian twirled them a little, enough that he could pick up on what Blaine had seen. And then Sebastian’s hand was cupping his face and his lips were on Blaine’s because if they were going to make a point of it to Mrs Anderson, they might as well go to town.

When Blaine opened his eyes, his mom was gone. And Sebastian? Sebastian didn’t kiss him like that again.

He kissed him, sure. Gentle pecks to the cheek, the jaw, his forehead, his nose, his curls. One time even to his knee but that had sort of been unintentional, Blaine thought. But never on the lips, no matter how many people were watching them, expecting it, waiting for it. He just wouldn’t kiss him.

Blaine’s mom didn’t mention Sebastian again, even though he was still in and out of the house (nearly) as much as ever. She mentioned little at all to Blaine, in fact, disappointment always set in her eyes whenever she looked at him.

The days ticked by on their fortnight long agreement and Blaine saw less and less of his best friend-turned-fake boyfriend every day. The weather was still warm, at least, so Blaine would spend his lunch hours with his legs folded up underneath him on the grass, picking through his crusts-on sandwiches that he made for himself these days. 

One day, he came out to find that his spot had already been filled, by a pair of long tanned legs and a lot of swishing dark hair. He hovered on the spot for a moment, scanning the nearby grassy area for an alternative when Santana called out to him. She patted the space next to her and even graciously shuffled over a little when he made his way over. 

“You look so pathetic eating lunch alone every day,” she said bluntly as he sat down. “And Brittany’s out sick today. Or at least I think she’s sick. She might have just accidentally locked herself inside her house again.”  
Blaine frowned, tucking his legs up and getting out his lunch. “I’m fine, Santana.”

She hummed, tipping her head in his direction. “Seems like you haven’t seen much of your boyfriend lately.”  
Blaine’s cheeks flared with a little heat. The worst part of all of this to him was still the lying. He didn’t like lying to anyone, not even if the large part of the student body was of little significance to him, and to make matters worse he really wasn’t good at it. “He’s been busy with a…project.”  
“Adam Crawford?” Santana replied in a beat, a devilish smile quirking at the corner of her lips. “Some project.”

Blaine sighed, throwing his lunch down against the grass and rubbing at his temples roughly for a moment. “It’s not that simple.”  
“Really? Because as his boyfriend I would be a little more concerned about what those two do in the art room all lunch break every day.”  
He knew he shouldn’t retaliate, shouldn’t bite back just because Santana’s comment struck deeper than he wished it did in him.

“Maybe I should pass that advice along to Brittany, since someone I know likes to spend various evenings with Quinn Fabray, instead of their girlfriend.”  
Santana jabbed a finger into his chest violently, her nail leaving a small indent in his shirt. “Don’t change the subject. Are you and Sebastian even dating?”

“No!” Blaine cried out in frustration, snapping his jaw shut when a few people looked around. “No, okay? We’re not. But you can’t- You can’t tell anyone. Please. Not for me, but for. For Sebastian.”  
Santana whistled lowly, plucking a strand of grass from the ground and twirling it between her fingers. “Just how twisted up in all this have you got yourself, Anderson?”

Blaine laughed sadly, shaking his head in defeat. “You have no idea.”

*

Blaine would never have expected Santana to be the one he would end up opening up to. But, then again, Santana was in many ways like Sebastian. The same sharp tongue, the same confidence, the same quick mind. So maybe she was the perfect person because she was exactly the kind of person that Blaine was used to talking to. 

Her solution was much like Sebastian’s often were, simple and effective. Even if this time it was less a solution and more a means to an end, an experimental process to help Blaine try and figure out even just a portion of the complicated thoughts swirling through his mind.

Blaine wasn’t sure if gay bars, or this particular gay bar, were the same as straight bars, since he’d never been in either. It was dark, the smell of vaporized stage smoke hanging in the air, and a heavy bass that pounded up through the soles of his shoes into his ribcage. 

Santana had been in charge of everything, down to what he was wearing. She’d all but banned him from the bow tie drawer for a night, digging out a tight pair of black jeans and a white button up. “Keep it simple, Anderson,” she advised. “You never know where those clothes might end up at the end of the night.”

They’d clattered out of the house before eleven with a word to his mother that he’d be back late. She seemed unconcerned - Blaine got the impression that she was thrilled that he was hanging around with a cheerleader, probably harboring hopes that it might “straighten him out” from whatever “phase” he was going through.

Santana positioned him by the bar, got a beer into his hand, and then left him to fend for himself, telling him that she would be in the corner with some girlfriends if he needed anything. He picked at the label on the bottle anxiously, not even having taken a sip by the time he felt someone move into the space beside him.

“Haven’t seen you around here before,” the man - boy? He couldn’t be that much older than Blaine, really - commented, propping one arm up against the bar. He was definitely attractive, sandy blonde hair pushed back, full lips. His shirt was open at the collar, his arms taut in the material. Green eyes. But not the same piercing green of Sebastian’s.

“First time,” Blaine replied, finally taking a sip from his bottle just for something to do. He made a face as he swallowed; he really didn’t like beer.  
The boy chuckled, gesturing to the bartender, who quickly started mixing something up into two glasses. “Try this. It’s my favourite.” He pushed the drink over to him, the mixture dark and slightly sweet smelling.

Blaine took a sip and while it burned more than the beer did, the improved taste certainly made up for it. “Thank you,” he smiled, a small blush dipping at his cheeks as the boy’s eyes ticked down over his frame. “I’m Blaine. Blaine Anderson”  
“Hunter,” the boy replied. “Clarington,” he added, with an amusement twinkle in his eyes. “Want to dance, Anderson?”

He looked out over the dance floor, the mass of writhing bodies. Hips slotted up together, couples making out, hands up shirts, down the back of jeans, everywhere. Blaine swallowed, taking another sip of his drink before turning back to Hunter. “Maybe we could just find a quiet corner somewhere? Talk?” he suggested, the dance floor more than a little intimidating to him thus far. 

Hunter smirked widely, nodding and reaching for Blaine’s hand. He clearly knew the layout of the bar, taking them around the dancers to a little booth off to one side. Blaine didn’t notice the couple in the next booth where one of the men was slipping onto his knees underneath the table. 

The drinks kept coming and Hunter’s hand drifted his way over Blaine’s thigh, but he couldn’t seem to focus on that. The more he drank, the more he talked, the  _faster_  he talked. Hunter had only asked him what had brought him here tonight, gentle flirting, and the gates had opened, Blaine recounting the entire tale of the past week complete with extensive gesturing. 

“He’s my best friend and I just feel so bad but I’m also angry and-”  
Hunter held up a hand with a sigh, finally cutting off Blaine’s long and winding train of thought. “Look. Are we going to hook up or are you just going to spend the entire night telling me about this boy you’re in love with?”

“I’m not in  _love_  with him!” Blaine screeched, smacking his hand down against the table.  
Hunter gaze him a pointed look which made Blaine shrink back in his seat. He shook his head a little, before holding out his hand and gesturing to Blaine’s phone. Blaine handed it over slowly watching as Hunter unlocked it and tapped something in before giving it back.

“If things with this Sebastian guy don’t work out, then give me a call sometime. Deal?”  
Hunter’s smile seemed genuine, a warmth behind it, so Blaine nodded. “Deal.”  
The taller boy stood up, taking his drink with him, hesitating as he rounded the side of the booth. He leaned down, cupping the side of Blaine’s face, Hunter’s alcohol tainted breath brushing over his lips. “In case this might help you understand what you need,” he whispered, sealing their lips. 

It wasn’t a bad kiss. It made Blaine’s lips warm and it definitely didn’t make him feel bad. But it didn’t make his stomach swoop, make his heart flip, make him want to hold him there so he could kiss him and just keep kissing him. It didn’t feel like it did with Sebastian. 

Santana found him at the end of the night, Blaine’s head down on the table as he sobbed openly, one hand still wrapped around his half empty glass. “Oh, jesus,” she sighed, hauling him up with one hand and dragging him towards the exit.

*

_Are you busy later? I really need to talk to you about something. Face to face. -B.  
_ **Today’s good. I actually need to talk to you too. -S.  
** **Where were you this morning, by the way? No usual Saturday morning mocha? Me and Adam were keeping an eye out for you :)**

_Sleeping off a hangover._  Blaine looked down at the words he’d typed, before hitting the backspace button. 

_Slept in. See you later._

Blaine spent the whole day trying to plan what he might say, phrasing and re-phrasing the words. But nothing sounded right, nothing conveyed the depth of feeling that he was trying to get across, to make Sebastian understand. The evening came too soon, Sebastian appearing in his doorway with a tub of brownie bites and a couple of sodas.

“Hey stranger,” he smiled, walking in naturally and settling down onto the bed.   
Blaine managed a stiff smile in response. If this were a normal Saturday night, he’d move down the bed so they could sit together, break out the snacks and put on a movie. Sebastian would fall asleep halfway through, his head lolling onto Blaine’s shoulder as he snored quietly. But it wasn’t a normal Saturday night.

“So, you wanted to talk to me?” Sebastian cracked open a soda can, catching the bubbles with his tongue as they fizzed over.  
Blaine’s gaze flickered down to the action, his mouth turning dry, before he shook his head a little. “Yeah, it’s just. Uh. Just needed to tell you that.” He took a deep breath. “That I love you, Sebastian.”

Sebastian chuckled softly, taking a swig from his can before setting it down. “Love you too, killer. I always forget how sentimental you get when we spend time apart. Remember that summer I went to camp on the West Coast?” He laughed again. “Anyway, now can I go?”  
Blaine blinked a few times, wanting to cry out in frustration, to grab Sebastian by the shoulders and physically shake him if that was what it took to make him realize what he was actually trying to say. “You go,” he whispered, ducking his head a little as he tried to gain a handle on his bubbling emotions.

“So things have been going really well with Adam, I’m so  _close_ , B, you have no idea. And he kissed me yesterday in the art room yesterday.”  
“That’s great,” Blaine replied quietly, pulling his knees up to his chest and resting his chin on them as he looked at his friend, an indescribable ache eating away at his chest. 

“But then he got all upset and said he couldn’t be the other guy, that he couldn’t do that to you, blah blah. But then I had the greatest idea.” Sebastian held out his hands, pausing the moment for effect. “A threesome.”  
Blaine’s head jerked up, his eyebrows shooting off into his hairline. “I’m sorry, a  _what?_ Why can’t you just wait another week to sleep with him? If you really like him anyway, then waiting would be good for you.”

Sebastian sighed, rolling his eyes. “No, you don’t understand.”  
Blaine gritted his teeth. That made two of them, then.  
“I still don’t know if I do. That’s why I need to sleep with him. Like, as soon as. And as long as you’re there too then he’s game. See? Simple.”

Blaine was silent, his gaze falling to the bedspread, marking out the different patterns with his eyes. He was so tired of playing this game. He was so tired of always doing whatever Sebastian needed him to, even when it meant him getting hurt. He was just tired. “I don’t know,” he murmured. “I’m not sure I’m comfortable with that.”

Sebastian moved up the bed towards him, cupping his cheek to bring his gaze up to him. “You won’t have to.. _do_  anything you don’t want to, I promise. You just need to be there, really. Please. Just do this one thing for me and I’ll never ask you for anything ever again.”  
Blaine wasn’t sure what hurt more. The fact that Sebastian was pushing this on him, or the fact that he knew he would inevitably say yes, as always. There was that fear, lodged especially deep with Adam now in the picture, that said that what if one day, Sebastian did stop asking him for things? What if he stopped  _needing_  him?

“Fine,” Blaine sighed, wrenching his face free from Sebastian’s grasp and reaching for the brownie bites.   
Sebastian smacked a loud kiss to his forehead. “You’re the best, B.”

*

_“Blaine, are you shitting me right now? Don’t you realize that this is a good thing?!”  
_ Blaine rolled his eyes, curling his legs up underneath him as he pressed the phone closer to his ear. “In what universe is a threesome with my best friend and his.. His  _Adam_  a good thing, Santana?”

 _“Sometimes I feel like you’re missing chunks of your brain, Anderson. Sebastian suggested the threesome. Sebastian who, like you said, could have waited a week to have sex with Adam, just the two of them. Blaine, he’s basically saying he wants to try you both out and decide.”  
_ “Somehow that doesn’t make me feel better,” Blaine hissed. “I don’t  _want_ to be pitted up against Adam in some kind of contest, I want to be treated like a person, not a show pony!”

 _“Hey, cool it. You’re focusing on all the wrong things here. This is an opportunity, Blaine. You need to take it.”  
_ Blaine paused, licking his lips. “An opportunity for what?”  
 _“For him to see you as more than just that six year old kid he saved from the bullies at school.”_

*

Sebastian had booked a hotel room, making sure that the two of them arrived first so they could talk things through before Adam got there. It was the kind of room that seemed to reek with lust, desire, sex. It felt seedy. Deep red blankets on the bed and low lighting. It made Blaine’s skin crawl.

“Take your shirt off,” Sebastian said, after he’d set down his bag, already reaching for the buttons of his own.   
Blaine bit down on his lower lip, playing with the end of his shirt, before looking over at Sebastian. Had Sebastian always been that toned? Or had that light hair across his chest, that dipped down from his belly button to the waistband of his jeans? The freckles across his skin Blaine knew, but this wasn’t the body of his best friend. This was like someone entirely new, that Blaine was seeing for the first time.

“Blaine, hello? Shirt,” Sebastian prompted, after his own had scattered to the floor. He frowned a little, stepping forward and stroking Blaine’s cheek gently. “You don’t need to be self-conscious. I’ve seen you shirtless like a million times, remember?”  
Blaine nodded silently, reluctantly tugging his shirt up and over his head. He didn’t have a bad body, exactly. He just wasn’t a lacrosse player with abs he could fit his fingers between, like Sebastian.

By the time he’d set his shirt down, Sebastian was halfway out of his jeans, his tight boxer briefs doing little to hide the length of his cock tucked into the material. Blaine swallowed, glancing down at his own jeans.

“Just undo the button,” Sebastian murmured, stepping closer with a small smile.   
Blaine obliged and then stood awkwardly, waiting for Sebastian to tell him what he was supposed to do next. 

“So, here’s what we’re going to do when Adam gets here.” Sebastian looped his fingers into the belt hooks of Blaine’s jeans, pulling him flush up against his chest.   
Blaine’s breath stuttered in his throat, his hands settling on Sebastian’s biceps. 

“I might slip a hand down your back,” Sebastian whispered, his fingertips grazing over the curve of Blaine’s spine right down to his lower back. “And then, I’ll kiss you.”  
Blaine felt his eyelids drooping, his head tipping up, muscle memory already ready for the familiar and heady press of Sebastian’s lips.

Blaine stumbled forward as Sebastian moved away, shivering as the cool air hit his bare chest.   
“Perfect, and then I’ll push Adam onto the bed, and you can just slip out.” Sebastian flopped back against the bed, keeping himself propped up onto his elbows. “Sound good?”

“Wait, what?”   
Sebastian raised an eyebrow. “Well, you said you weren’t comfortable with it. I was never actually going to make you stay. That would be kind of weird.”  
Blaine folded his arms across his chest self-consciously, nodding furiously. “Right,” he murmured, forcing the bitter tone to keep out of his voice. 

_You need to take it._

Sebastian might think he was going to leave. He’d see about that.

*

Adam arrived soon after, looking by far the most nervous of the trio. He tugged his beanie off his light hair, offering Sebastian a wave while giving Blaine’s cheek a kiss. There was a moment in which the three looked at each other, unsure where to start and had the circumstances been different, Blaine might have laughed, just out of sheer discomfort. 

Sebastian finally took charge, standing from the bed and guiding Adam to sit on the edge of it, before turning to Blaine. This was it. Just as they’d practiced. Sebastian’s fingers hooked into his belt loops and Blaine could feel the thud of his friend’s heart against his chest, pounding against his own. 

In all their shared life together, Blaine had never seen Sebastian look so unsure. Sebastian was the one of them that always knew what to do, was always confident in his decisions even when they were ridiculous. But now he looked lost. 

So Blaine hooked a hand around the back of Sebastian’s neck, drawing his lips down to his own. And there was that swooping sensation he’d missed, unable to find it in Hunter’s lips that night, only available to him in his vivid and vibrant dreams. Sebastian’s hand settled on his lower back, fingernails digging into his skin there, probably leaving marks in his wake. 

Blaine let his mouth linger on Sebastian’s lower lip for just a second past when he felt the other boy pulling back, letting himself remember how he tasted, how he felt in this moment. For all he knew, it could be the last time he’d get the chance.

Sebastian’s hand grazed down his arm, latching around his wrist tightly, his thumb tracing the tree of veins on the inside. He gave him a gentle look, as if to remind him of the plan that he’d set in place. For Blaine to leave.

But Blaine had no interest in following that plan, instead reaching for the collar of Adam’s shirt with his free hand and tugging him to his feet. He watched Adam swallow, a little colour dusted over his cheekbones, before pulling his head down. It was a fumbled kiss, like neither of them were really sure what to do with their lips at all, and one that was short-lived.

Sebastian let out a small noise, his hand tugging on Blaine’s wrist insistently. “I can’t do this,” Sebastian whispered, and the boys broke apart to look on the other. Sebastian shook his head firmly, finally letting go of Blaine’s wrist as he stumbled backwards, grabbing his shirt and jeans from the floor, and cradling them to his chest. “I’m sorry, I can’t, I have to- I have to go.”

“Bastian, wait,” Blaine pleaded, but by the time he’d taken a step forward Sebastian was out of the door. He stared at the chestnut wood, his heart pounding erratically in his chest. He wanted to run after him, to tell him it was all going to be okay, that all of this could just be forgotten. But his feet felt glued to the floor, his stomach churning in discomfort. 

“He really cares about you, you know,” Adam said softly, sitting down on the end of the bed.  
Blaine bit his lip, taking a shaky breath. “I know.”

*

Blaine spend the next day in bed, cocooned in blankets and trying to decide what he was supposed to do or say to his best friend to make this all better. It had all been Sebastian’s ideas in the first place but for whatever reason, Blaine was the one that felt awful, guilty even. Like him kissing Adam had tipped Sebastian over the edge into something Blaine couldn’t even identify. 

There came a gentle knock on his door around lunchtime, it opening to allow the smell of soup to waft into the room. Even though he was sure he didn’t want to eat, his stomach growled to the contrary and he lifted his head to watch his mother set the tray down on the nightstand. 

“How are you feeling?”  
Blaine buried his head back down into the pillow. “Awful.”  
His mom paused, sitting down on the edge of the bed and brushing his curls back from his face. “Are you sick?”  
He hesitated. “No. Not exactly.”

She kept stroking his hair, the way she used to when he was a kid and he’d come home from school with a grazed knee or a bruised arm. It soothed him more than Blaine might have liked to admit, the familiar scent of her perfume washing over him. 

“Is it Sebastian?” she asked finally, her hand not stilling in its motions.  
Blaine nodded, snuffling a little. His eyes stung from how much he’d cried, he didn’t want to start all over again.  
“You two will figure it out. You always do.”

He sighed, rubbing a hand over his eyes angrily. “It’s..it’s more complicated this time. Everything got so messed up and now I don’t know if I’ll ever get my best friend back.” A strangled sob broke from his throat and he pushed his face into the pillow, trying to muffle the tears.

“I don’t know exactly what’s been going on recently but I do know how much that boy cares about you. And how much you care about him. And for what it’s worth, honey, I’m-” She paused. “I’m so sorry about how I acted at the Homecoming dance. Since then, too.”  
He tipped his head up, his jaw a little slack. 

“You are my son, Blaine, and I will always love and support you no matter what. Please know that.” She leaned down and kissed his forehead, pulling back with a small smile. “Now, chicken noodle, your favourite. Try and eat something, sweetheart.”

Blaine nodded a little, shuffling into a sitting position and eyeing up the soup. His stomach rumbled persistently. “Thanks, mom.”

*

The next day, his mom all but dragged him out of bed and forced him to go to school.   
“One day is moping, two is just you feeling sorry for himself,” she tutted, hustling him out of the house with instructions to Rachel to keep an eye on him for the day.  
She huffed as they got into her car together, but Blaine was in no mood to bicker, so he simply stared pointedly out of the passenger window rather than rise to her persistent irritable sighs. 

Blaine didn’t see Sebastian all morning and was starting to think he was trying to take off a few days, too. He passed Adam in the hallway between first and second period, who offered him a cursory nod and nothing more. 

Santana tried to coax him into sneaking off-campus for lunch with her and Brittany, but Blaine declined, returning to his spot on the grass, even though it was a little chilly out. He was startled halfway through his peanut butter and jelly (another of his mom’s standard comfort foods) by the sound of the announcers crackling into life.

He frowned, looking around to the front of the building where they had a screen, too, usually emblazoned with the school crest, outside of formal broadcasts. He rolled his eyes: given that it was lunchtime, the chances were it would some other protest, probably involving a hunger strike, again. He stuffed his sandwich into his mouth defiantly.

Which was why he was surprised when, rather, it was Sebastian’s voice he heard over the speakers. _“Blaine. I hope you’re out there. Because otherwise this is just going to be really embarrassing when I have to repeat this again tomorrow. Or the next day. Or every day until you hear me out.”_

Blaine tossed his sandwich into the trash can, scrambling towards the front of the building so he could see the screen more clearly. There was already a crowd there, a few people whispering and nudging one another when they saw him join the group. 

_“Blaine, I have been the biggest jerk in the entire world. And in that I’ve made the worst mistake because I have jeopardized my friendship - my_ relationship _with you. You are everything to me. You have been since that first day I fell on you and you gave me some of your sandwich.”_

Sebastian on the screen let out a small wet laugh, and Blaine could see the tears welling up in his eyes. He needed to get to him. He knew where the broadcasts were streamed from, his feet working on autopilot, ears still fixed on the audio that was playing throughout the school as he pushed through the students lingering to watch. 

_“I have taken you for granted. And I’ve acted as though there were something better out there that I needed to find. Like you weren’t already enough. Like you weren’t already all I could ever need.”_

Blaine burst into the small studio, the only person noticing him being a small, nervous looking freshman who was operating the computer that was streaming it. He approached the filming area carefully, stepping over various cables and wires.

“The truth is, B. Well. The truth is.” Sebastian swore under his breath, the microphone not picking it up even though Blaine did where he was standing to one side. “The truth is that I love you. I am  _in_  love with you. And I’m so sorry that it took me this long to figure that out.”

Blaine couldn’t wait any longer, his feet pushing him into the filming area. Sebastian whipped his head around in surprise, a wide smile breaking out over his features as Blaine leaped forward to embrace him. 

He squeezed him tightly, barely registering the tears that had started streaming down his cheeks as he pushed his face into Sebastian’s neck. Sebastian’s hands clung equally as tight, fisting into his shirt. 

Blaine raised his head slowly, his hands moving to either side of Sebastian’s face. There was no camera in the room to them, no other people, let alone the masses watching the stream on the other side of the screens. It was just them. Blaine and Sebastian.

“I’m in love with you too,” Blaine murmured, and Sebastian kissed him.


End file.
